Insights

“It will obviously be very tempting to have the opportunity to withdraw money every year, especially in times of financial difficulty. With rising costs of living due to skyrocketing interest rates and the load shedding crisis, many consumers are struggling to make ends meet and this can be an easy way to gain access to money that would otherwise not be available. 

One of the most important impacts that AI has in the financial advisory sector is the ability to facilitate and analyse large volumes of data quickly and accurately, says Thys van Zyl, head of product development at Everest Wealth.

“The Reserve Bank will definitely have to start looking at other options than just applying interest rate hikes. Proactive thinking will have to be done to see how it can be made easier for cash-strapped consumers with the cost-of-living skyrocketing.”

“Political and economic uncertainty has had a major influence on the rand in the past 10 years and resulted in the currency seeing a real seesaw. These events can also lead to a lack of foreign investment, which in turn results in the rand seesawing.”

It is now time for the government to stop underplaying the situation at Eskom and instead start taking action by no longer being an obstacle to solving the electricity crisis but rather an enabler.

South Africa’s underperforming pension system is a complex challenge that requires a multifaceted approach. 

In an environment of rising inflation and high interest rates, investors must look for ways to save and grow capital in real rate terms.

“During previous investment conferences much was said about South Africa making progress to improve the climate in which investors can do business, but many promises such as Ramaphosa being a new broom and that corruption will be eradicated, has not yielded the required results. What will Ramaphosa promise this time?” 

The decision to exempt Eskom from disclosing and reporting irregular and fruitless expenditure will further undermine investor confidence and may also have other long-term consequences. 

Increasing the interest rate is not the answer to suppress inflation and instead focus should be placed on larger problems such as load shedding to bring inflation under control.